Writing Resources: APA Seventh Edition Feedback List

You can read a downloadable version of this article: Writing Resources: APA Seventh Edition Feedback List

This document is a compilation of feedback that I provide students in the courses I teach at Heritage University School of Social Work. The goal with this form is to develop a descriptive and clear set of feedback to support students in improving their writing. There are many links to help promote further learning about the area they struggled in their writing. It is also useful for other students to see the breadth and scope of much of the feedback provided.

It provides feedback around problems related to in-text citations, reference list entries, and general APA tone. As I run into feedback to provide, I update my list (although I probably won’t republish this version until I share it again with students specifically) so it will ever be growing. I have published my list from the sixth edition of the APA manual. Please note that the links no longer resolve for many of the citations in that list. The references for this list are almost all based on the official website of the American Psychological Association, the actual authority that publishes the manual.

In-Text Citation

No In-Text Citations

Problems with in-text citations. Your writing does not include any in-text citations. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. There is an overview of in-text citations that is useful. In-text citations are used both when you paraphrase sources and when you offer direct quotes. You must do this to not plagiarize the material you are getting your information from, but there is a balance to offer the appropriate level of citation. The in-text citations is either in narrative or parenthetical in how you write it. The in-text citations, whether written as “Author01 and Author 02 (year)” or “(Author 01 & Author 02, year)”, should be used to designate any information which is not your own original concepts or ideas.

Too Few In-Text Citation

Problems in your in-text citations. You do not have enough in-text citations in your paper. Giving credit to where you get your information from is extremely important in scholarly writing. When we do not put in-text citations, this can be considered plagiarism. There is a balance to how frequently you should remind the reader the source of your information and you don’t want to do it too often or not enough. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. Their article about theappropriate level of citation might help. I generally recommend to students that I am worried about you plagerizing when in a paragraph talking about something that is not strictly your opinion you have zero in-text citations.

Missing Author in In-Text Citations

Problems in the in-text citations. You are missing a date for the in-text citations. APA follows an author–date citation system in all of its citations. Each time you use the in-text citation, you must include the the author and date. You must do this to not plagiarize the material you are getting your information from. The in-text citations is either in narrative or parenthetical in how you write it. The in-text citations, whether written as “Author01 and Author 02 (year)” or “(Author 01 & Author 02, year)”, should be used to designate any information which is not your own original concepts or ideas.

Missing Date in In-Text Citations

Problems in the in-text citations. You are missing a date for the in-text citations. APA follows an author–date citation system in all of its citations. If there is not a published date that you are able to find, you would write “n.d.” along with the author each time you make a citation. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. You can read their entry about missing reference information to see more about this and other information that you might not have for an individual source.

Secondary Sources

Problems with the in-text citation. You included secondary sources incorrectly. When we are doing academic writing, we generally paraphrase sources. Sometimes the text that we read has sources that they are citing. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. The post on Secondary Sources helps describe when and how to include these. They do describe that secondary sources should be used sparingly.

Direct Quotations and Page Numbers

You need to include the page number or paragraph numbers in your in-text citation. For direct quotations, APA requires an easy way of finding directly quoted information. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. There is an overview post about quotes, a post about Direct Quotation of Material With Page Numbers or Direct Quotation of Material Without Page Numbers.

Reference List

No Reference List Entry

Problems with your reference list. You do not include a reference list entry in your post. For a written paper, the reference list begins on a new page, and with the word “Reference” centered. They are placed alphabetic order and have a hanging indent. For forum posts, just putting the word reference and having them in alphabetic order is considered acceptable. APA is really specific about how these sources are cited and it defines what order the elements of the reference entry go in and the text styling and grammar they have (e.g. use of capitalization, periods, italics) for different elements. The article basic principles of reference list entries gives an overview of the basics, but each reference list entry should have the following elements: author (who is responsible for this work), date (when was this work published), title (what is this work called) and a source (where can I retrieve this work). The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. There is an overview post about the reference list entries.

Problem with your reference list entries. You have a post that has a link to the database that you retrieved the journal from. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. They have posts talking both about database information in references and DOIs and URLs that might be helpful. For journal articles, if you would like to post a link (and it is really helpful if you do) it should be as a DOI and would look something https://doi.org/xxxxx. This provides a link to the abstract for that source at the journal its published in. This give the reader a way of directly finding the article.

No Date

You have a problem with the date in your reference list entry. You placed the wrong date for the article you are citing. Finding the date for a publication can be difficult. APA follows an author–date citation system. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. Make sure to look around the website for a date published. Make sure that you do not use the “copyright date” that is sometimes at the footer of the page.

Formatting of title

You have problems with the title in your reference list entry. Look at capitalization, italics, and other formatting regarding titles in the reference list. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. There is an overview post about the reference list entries. There are several elements in in a reference list entry. They specifically talk about the title element and it’s formatting.

Including Sources Without In-Text Citations

You have a problem with your reference list. You included sources in your reference list which you do not have a in-text citations for. Only include reference list entries for material with included in-text citations (see the overview descriptions in the APA Style website about Reference List Entries and In-Text Citations. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. In your writing you want to avoid both undercitation and overcitation to not plagiarize, and much of scholarly writing will include paraphrased content from other sources.

Retrieval Date

You have problems with your reference list entry. You included a retrieval date when you did not need to. Only include the a retrieval date only if the work is unarchived and designed to change over time. Most references do not include retrieval dates. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. There are several elements in in a reference list entry. They specifically talk using Retrieval Dates.

Citation Format - Wikipedia

Problem in your reference list. Your citation is not formatted correctly. If you do have a scholarly reason to cite wikipedia entry, the APA Style does provide for how to do this.

Use of Sources / Bibliography vs Reference

Problems with your reference list entries. While in a forum, things do follow exactly how something would be posted in a paper. I would recommend using the same language that you would need to in your papers. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. There is an over of the support the website offers regarding reference list entries you could view for support. You should start your list of references with the word Reference and not with Sources or Bibliography.

Group as Author

Problems with your reference list entries. Your citation includes a group author name (e.g. an organization) and you have tried to put it in a last name first initial format. You would just write out the whole group name. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. Their posting, Format of Group Author Names might be of assistance.

General APA Tone

Use of First Person

Possible problems in general APA formatting. Be cautious about using first the first person in academic writing, although there are a number of exceptions as to when we do use the first person. The APA Style Guide’s Website offers many helpful resources in learning more of the APA style. They have a post on use of using first person pronouns. The possible problem I see with much of students use of first person is that they are basing their opinion of the subject on their own subjective ideas. Not that there is never a place for this, most academic writing is really making an argument using other academic sources. Jerz (2019) has a good blog post,Academic Argument: Evidence-based Defense of a Non-obvious Position, that describes what goes into making an academic argument.

Sources

Possible problems with sources used in your writing. In much of academic writing sources that have been published in peer-reviewed journals are considered the best sources to use. These peer-reviewed journals can be found by preforming an Eagle Search using Donald North Library website. Another good source to find information in is Google Scholar which is different then just Google. If you are using Google scholar look for posts that have the PDF available or seem relevant and search at the University library website for that title to gain access. It can be helpful to start your search using sources like Wikipedia and other such non peer-reviewed sources, but this is not what you should actually cite. It gives you background and context in an easier to read format. Some other sources fund on the internet can be useful, but be cautions. Look for sources that are reputable and seem to evaluate the topic from a scholarly perspective. It is also best if there is a published date and an author that the article can be attributed to.